


She's a doll

by gwmclintock88



Series: Across the Whedonverse [14]
Category: Dollhouse, Firefly
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Whedonverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-09
Updated: 2015-10-09
Packaged: 2018-04-25 14:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4964251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwmclintock88/pseuds/gwmclintock88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Echo figured hitching a ride with her sort-of brother Alpha would be easy. Turns out, the trip just followed her general life pattern: a mess is made, and well she's got to clean it up. Except now that includes helping her soulmark she never thought she'd meet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She's a doll

**Author's Note:**

> Here you go. It's not much, but this was about as far as the bunny took me before disappearing. Hope you enjoy it.

            “You sure this a good idea?” Echo asked as she walked up ramp into the ship. Alpha – no, Wash, he’s going by Wash right now – nodded his head, not even glancing back at her. “Two of us together is bound to draw trouble.”

            “We’ve got enough of that, what’s a little more to help out a friend?” Wash said, his smile infectious. “Besides, you needed off the planet, and well, we need the funds.”

            “Use all of yours up?” Echo stopped to stare at the cargo hold. She already picked out several spots she’d hide things.

            “Yeah, well, not that they know, but yeah,” Wash said. The grin fell off a bit, looking sadder than she thought he ever could. “Been a few lean years, but we’ve got by.”

            Echo nodded as they headed through the ship to the mess. She’d know Wash for longer than she’d know anyone. Both Alliance experiments in creating the perfect Companions, except they did too good of a job. Or maybe they were just more resilient to it all. Either way, Echo and Alpha/Wash came out of it with more than anyone thought possible.

            Wash stopped in the mess, turning to her so suddenly she ran into him. He caught her by the arms, holding her up. “So, I wasn’t completely truthful about things.”

            “Like what? This better not be some nefarious plot to get into my pants,” Echo warned him. Wash shook his head so fast it looked like it would fly off.

            “No, happily married now. Soulmate and all that,” Wash said, quickly averting any anger. He let go and took a step back, glancing over his shoulder. “Zoe’s kind of the jealous type, and well, I don’t need to know who would win in a fight.”

            “Really?” Echo asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

            “Really,” Wash said, his smile wider than she thought possible. He looked…happy. Not the insane happy she remembered from the Dollhouse, but the kind of happy all the dolls wanted. The kind where you can give up everything for someone else. Even freedom.

            To see Alpha tied down, being a pilot and giving up all they could do, there must be something about this woman. Even if she had his soulmark, this Zoe must be some kind of special.

            “Okay, then why did you bring me here?” Echo crossed her arms, glaring at him. “I get that I needed a ride, but why did it have to be your ship?”

            “Technically not mine, and well, it’ll be easier once you see her,” Wash said. He turned to look down a hallway as footsteps signaled someone’s approach.

            “Her?” Echo asked, but before she could get him to explain, a tall, ruggedly handsome man stepped into the mess. He walked with purpose and swagger, somehow owning the space around him while appearing welcoming at the same time. He wiped his hands on a dirty rag, oil stains on his shirt and face. He must have been working on the engines before meeting her.

            “You must be our passenger,” the man said, holding out his hand. Echo took it, glancing at Wash. “Name’s Mal. This here’s Serenity.”

“Echo. Beautiful ship,” Echo said. She felt eyes following her, dancing around her, but she couldn’t turn around to look quite yet. “Thanks’ for picking me up.”

“Not a problem,” he said, his easy grin still in place. “Haven’t had a passenger in a while, but you’ve got free run of the mess if you like. If you need anything from the cargo hold, you’ll need to speak to me, or my first mate, Zoe.”

            “The wife,” Echo nodded toward Wash.

            Mal looked between them, his eyes narrowing a bit. “You two know each other?”

            “Practically brother and sister,” Wash said, letting out a nervous laugh. Echo just smiled, happy to see some of the Alpha she knew still in there. Maybe Wash was whoever Alpha became once he finished becoming. Maybe finding your soulmark does that to you. “Grew up together. When she sent me a wave and we were in the area, I thought I’d do her a solid.”

            “I’m paying, don’t worry about that,” Echo said.

            “I’m not. Just, last time we had guests, things didn’t end too well,” Mal said, turning back to look solely at her. “For them, or for us.”

            “Well, I promise, not to start any trouble,” she said, holding up her fingers and aping a scout.

            “Not worried bout startin’ trouble,” Mal said, “more worried bout it finding you.”

            “Well, that I can’t help,” Echo said, shrugging her shoulder while smiling. She got him to laugh, so she counted it as a win. “Am I going to meet the rest of your crew? It’s going to be a long few weeks before we hit landfall again.”

            Mal glanced at Wash, who shuffled under the gaze. Okay, so some kind of crime they need to finish. At least things didn’t change too much for Alpha. “We’ve got to make a short stop along the way. That gonna to be a problem?”

            “Nope,” Echo said. “I need a bit of a vacation anyway, and well, you fit my budget.” Mal relaxed a little, but still eyed her. She knew he’d be watching her, but she couldn’t help it if she looked suspicious: You’d too if you had the Alliance on your ass for destroying their million dollar project.

            “I’ll go start prepping for takeoff,” Wash said, retreating from them.

            “I’ll show you to your room, let you get settled,” Mal’s words brokered no argument. There was no talk, and in some ways, Echo thanked him for that. Something was following her, eyes still upon her as she moved. She glanced back over her shoulder, catching the image of a girl only a few years younger than her staring at her from around the corner.

            “Our med bay, and the Doc,” Mal said, waving toward the man in there. He turned around to look at them. His eyes were wide with fright. “Easy there, Wash say’s she’s a friend.”

            “And you believe him?” Echo finally got a good look at the man.

            It was Simon Tam, a prominent surgeon in the core before he was labelled a terrorist by the Alliance. Something about breaking into a secure facility and stealing state secrets. She’d seen the released videos covering up more of the Alliance’s horrors. Whatever he did steal, it must be worth it. “Doctor Tam,” Echo held out her hand, “big fan of your work.”

            “What?” Tam startled, and she earned a glare from Mal.

            “I’d be lying if I didn’t know who you were, what with the Alliance trying to capture you and all. But,” she added before Mal could reach for the weapon. He wouldn’t get a chance to use it, but he could reach for it. A little truth wouldn’t hurt right now. Especially if Wash trusted them. “But, I’m not about to turn you in. Then I’d have to turn myself in.”

            Mal’s glare hardened before he barked out a curse in Chinese. “Just what I need another fugitive.”

            “They’re not looking for me,” Echo said before Mal could go off. “Why would they?”

            “She’s a doll.” Echo froze at the words. They came from the young woman who appeared in the doorway. Her body tensed as reality met perception. They were the words carved into, words the Dollhouse couldn’t remove, though thankfully they could be covered with hardy makeup. It’s needed when the words wrap around your thigh. “They dressed her up, played with her, but couldn’t break her.”  

            “Who…who are you?” Echo asked, staring at the girl with a dancer’s body but the wide eyes of a killer. Eyes she knew Wash tried to hide and she stared back every day. The girl wasn’t like them, but she saw more.

            Tam dropped something, fumbling with a tray. Mal’s glare relaxed and then he started to laugh. The three other occupants of the room stared at him. Echo’s eyes kept flickering over to the girl who inched her way to her side. Clammy hands grasped hers, holding tightly.

            “Your sister got hers before you?” Mal managed to get out between laughs. Tam glared at him as he put all the medical supplies back onto the tray.

            “River,” Tam said, moving toward the girl now clinging to her. Echo instinctively brought her hand up to stop him.

            “They did something to her,” Echo said, her eyes flashing over River as her personalities tried to make sense of this new information. Learning Wash found his soulmark should have prepared her for this, but her words were too specific, too grounded in her history for someone not to say them without knowing. But River knew. Somehow, she knew, and Echo couldn’t decide if that was more frightening than finding her mark.  “They took a part of her out, tried to put something back in.” Echo turned completely to River. She raised a hand, her thumb rubbing River’s cheek, getting the girl to lean into her touch. “It didn’t work. Whatever they did, it didn’t work. Were they…no, another branch maybe?”

            “What are you talking about?” Tam demanded, his voice ringing through the med bay.

            “Easy there doc,” Mal said, finally calming down from his laughter though there still was mirth on his face. “Think Echo here is just getting the lay of things.”

            “Yes, right, sorry,” Echo said, moving so she faced Mal again. “You’ve probably got a lot of questions, and I’ll do my best to answer them. Wash may be able to help -”

            “Wash knows what’s going on with you?” Mal’s mirth disappeared as the glare appeared again.

            “We are like brother and sister,” Echo said. “Down to the very last personality stuck in our heads.”

            “Personality? What?” Mal asked, now cursing again in Chinese. He stormed over to the Intercom. “Wash, get your ass to the mess!” He turned back to her, pointing at her. “You, follow me.”

            “River,” Tam moved forward to grab his sister, but River only tightened her grip.

            “No,” River shook her head. “Echo’s safe. She’s good.”

            “She might be, but we don’t know her,” Tam said, holding up his hands to placate her.

            River glanced up at Echo before burying her head in her shoulder. “Mine.”

            “Okay little one,” Echo said, though she wasn’t much taller than River. “Let’s just go with them for now, and we’ll explain. Okay?”

            “How do you…how do you stop the people from talking so much?” River asked, making Tam freeze again.

            Mal stuck his head back into the med bay. “What part of ‘follow me’ don’t you understand?”

            “Best do what the boss says,” Echo said, getting a nod from River. “And I’ll try and help you, but I can’t promise anything.”

            “So kay,” River muttered as they followed Mal to the mess. “You’re here. No more dolls. No more games. Just here.”

            Echo thought of what she could tell, what these people could believe and what she got herself drug into. She wanted to hate Wash for answering, herself for asking for help, but then she might not have found her soulmark. She knew the signs of torture, knew what they did to her. She tried to sort through the words she could give, trying to find something that would comfort River. But everything felt inadequate. For all that was stuck in her head, it seemed everything was forced open in River’s.

            A match Alliance-made in hell.

“That’s right,” Echo said before laying a kiss on River’s head. “I’m here.”


End file.
